Weird Trend: Adults Wearing Silly Bandz

All the rage with the kids, funny-shaped, brightly colored Silly Bandz are this generation's answer to the slap bracelet. Modelina.com recently reported that even the fashion crowd has taken to the craze--both Henry Holland and Agyness Deyn have begun collecting.
Slap bracelets aside, the whole trend is very reminiscent of those rubbery rave bracelets that kids used to wear in stacks. The difference this time around? You don’t have to been an angsty teenager or have matching neon hair to try it out. In order to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, we talked to a girl named Morgan, who is in her twenties and collects Silly Bandz with her friends.

All the rage with the kids, funny-shaped, brightly colored Silly Bandz are this generation's answer to the slap bracelet. Modelina.com recently reported that even the fashion crowd has taken to the craze--both Henry Holland and Agyness Deyn have begun collecting.
Slap bracelets aside, the whole trend is very reminiscent of those rubbery rave bracelets that kids used to wear in stacks. The difference this time around? You don’t have to been an angsty teenager or have matching neon hair to try it out. In order to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, we talked to a girl named Morgan, who is in her twenties and collects Silly Bandz with her friends.

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All the rage with the kids, funny-shaped, brightly colored Silly Bandz are this generation's answer to the slap bracelet. Modelina.com recently reported that even the fashion crowd has taken to the craze--both Henry Holland and Agyness Deyn have begun collecting.

Slap bracelets aside, the whole trend is very reminiscent of those rubbery rave bracelets that kids used to wear in stacks. The difference this time around? You don’t have to been an angsty teenager or have matching neon hair to try it out. In order to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, we talked to a girl named Morgan, who is in her twenties and collects Silly Bandz with her friends.

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It turns out that Silly Bandz aren’t that new. Morgan says that she first heard about them around Christmas of 2009 when her mom gave her some. She says they that although they used to be hard to find nowadays you can get them almost anywhere, like the drug store or in the mall. A pack will run you anywhere between $1.99 and $5.99. There are some shapes known as “rares” which are the most sought-after and hardest to find.

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People who collect Silly Bandz wear them stacked on as bracelets--not only to show off how many they have collected, but also to compare with other rabid fans. Morgan says they're great conversation starters, but she usually only wears her rares. (The rest are stored in a plastic baggy at home.)

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Today the New York Post reports that slap watches are the new Silly Bandz. Only, as anyone who came of age in the late 80s well knows, what the Post is hailing as "the new" is really just a slap bracelet (the short-lived accessories craze of the late 80s/early 90s) with a watch face on it. Which is exciting since slap bracelets were awesome. They were also banned because the metal strip inside the fabric that snapped over wrists often became exposed and caused injuries and they were subsequently banned from many schools. At least they were banned from my elementary school and that was a sad day for the girls of Lafayette Elementary School in Washington D.C.
"Slap watches -- whose straight, plastic bands curl around a wrist when they're slapped against it -- are being aggressively pushed by some merchants as the latest in cheap, colorful, mix-and-match fashion," the article reads. The story goes on to quote numerous retailers, including Henri Bendel, who are pushing slap watches and have declared silly bandz "over." Allen Ash of Almar Sales Co., told the Post he expects to sell a million slap watches this year and said, "Silly Banz may still have a little life on the West Coast, but they are completely over on the East Coast."

The runways for RTW Spring 2011 in Milan this past week have been littered with man-jeggings. (Neologism = meggings?) And T's The Moment blog just confirmed it with a tweet: "Jeggings- new term coined for all the jean and trouser-like leggings and super slim, tight pants being shown here this season."
The jegging is a risky and conflicted clothing item for most ladies. On the one hand, when done right, they're just like skinny jeans only more comfortable (hooray for elastic waist bands!). On the other hand, they can be epically ugly and tricky to pull off.
And now, terrifyingly, men are following suit. Lauren even noticed man-jeggings at Top Shop back in January.
We're hoping this isn't a trend that trickles down. But we've seen enough too-tight skinny jean-ed ass-cracks along Bedford Ave. to know that hipsters aren't parting with their beloved trouser anytime soon. So we're looking at you, Williamsburg, when we say: Please, treat this trend responsibly.
Click through, at your own risk, to see man-jeggings on the runway.
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